Monday, February 13, 2012

a mom's child-challenged wardrobe


I try to keep up the appearance of being relatively put-together and professional at the office. Some days, I pull it off. Other days, it’s questionable. Most days, I’m happy if my clothes are free of baby drool or the imprint of messy toddler hands. 

Now I’ve recently changed up my wardrobe routine a little. Since my office moved downtown, I’ve started biking to work. It takes a little extra preparation, but it’s coming along nicely. Each morning, I put on an old T-shirt and pack a work-appropriate outfit in my backpack. My morning routine instantly became more care-free. First of all, it’s stopped me from changing my clothes more than once in the morning because I’ve decided it doesn’t look right, fit right or feel right.

More importantly, in the almost two years I’ve been back to work since my daughter was born, I’ve never escaped the house in an outfit that looked at all like it did when I took it out of the closet. But with my work clothes packed away, I worry less about the messy obstacles in between me and the door.

If my daughter grabs me with hands full of oatmeal and banana I don’t care as much. (In fact, some days I don’t even change the shirt.) If my she puts stickers on my clothes, it’s OK. If my shedding dog rubs up against my legs, I can lean down and pet her without concern. If I spill coffee on myself, I don’t have to bring my clothes to a dry cleaner.
I thought I hit the wardrobe jackpot. Each day, after my energizing bike ride to the office, I change into my clean work clothes. Sometimes I even remember a change of shoes.

Today as I changed into my clothes, I took a quick look in the mirror to see a huge glob of something on my pant leg. A closer look revealed it was peanut butter. Peanut butter?! Anika had apples with peanut butter for breakfast. I suspect she looked through my folded outfit before it reached the backpack.  

I wiped it off with soap and water, but there is still a substantial light brown mark on my black pants. Turns out the routine isn’t fool-proof after all (I did walk around with a suit and tennis shoes last week). But it seems it going to be even harder to get it baby-proofed.

On the way out of the bathroom, feeling slightly defeated by sticky baby hands, my co-worker said, “Good morning, you look great today!”

So maybe I’m not as wardrobe-challenged as I thought. Or at least I can fake it well enough to make it look that way. 


NOTE: I like to keep organized, so I'm reposting my blogs in one spot. This one originally ran on July 7, 2009.

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